


Surprise me

by sabrina



Series: kaf·fee·klatsch verse [2]
Category: Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens (2015)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Coffee Shops & Cafés, Established Relationship, I thought I was done in this universe but plot bunnies hopped in so sue me, M/M, Mostly just flirting, Texting and flirting, ridiculous fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-08-03
Updated: 2016-08-03
Packaged: 2018-07-29 01:32:31
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,097
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7665127
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sabrina/pseuds/sabrina
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Hux might not like the coffee, but he definitely likes the guy making it.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Surprise me

**Author's Note:**

> So, I figured I was done with kaf·fee·klatsch verse for a while. I wasn't going to discount the idea that I'd write in it again, but I didn't really expect to do so any time soon. But then a friend sent me a picture, which you can see on [my tumblr](http://jedihafren.tumblr.com/post/148356798807/ann1011-blog-sent-me-this-image-in-an-email-this) and I got inspired and so here we are. 
> 
> This will definitely make more sense if you've read kaf·fee·klatsch but it probably can be enjoyed on its own too.
> 
> So enjoy!

Starbucks was not Hux’s favorite location to get coffee.

When there were local houses on nearly every block, many of which had their own roasteries, and took their coffee incredibly seriously, well, did it matter that this was the city Starbucks had been founded in? Coffee at Starbucks was not precisely ‘shopping local’, certainly not in comparison with the locally owned, individualized, serious coffee shop.

However, recent days had meant that he’d had to change that perspective, swallow the bitter taste of coffee that was slightly over-done, and stop in a Starbucks in the morning. And perhaps it was his imagination, but despite the generic-ness of the roast itself, he couldn’t help but feel that it was a little better on the mornings when he did stop. Enough so that Hux almost felt guilty about having set Ren up with an audition, because it did seem that the man had a gift with coffee, even mediocre espresso roast, and he’d underestimated just how significant that gift was.

The Starbucks job had been a quick fix to Ren’s financial problems after he had (rightfully) quit his job, and Hux was well aware of the fact that Ren hated it. He complained nightly about the uniform, the change in his hair, the coffee, the entitled asshole customers - to which Hux had bemusedly responded 'wasn’t I one of those?’. As a distraction from his rant went, this one had worked above average, and the two of them had ended up mostly naked in less time than it took to make a latte. It was a piece of information tucked away for the next rant.

Because that was a thing Hux was beginning to realize. Despite the mostly quiet nature of Ben the Barista, Hux’s Ren had more fire. It was the fire that had caused him to push back at Hux’s (admittedly, rather stupid) remarks about his job, and had caused him to turn in his two weeks notice to Snoke, and it burned underneath the surface and you never quite knew when it was going to flare up. It made Ren a continual challenge that Hux was taking distinct pleasure in unpacking.

Because that spark lit their nightly conversations about theater and roles, and it was very likely the thing that kept Ren waking up in the morning and going to Starbucks to brew coffee for the unappreciative masses.

There were a number of people in the shop as Hux walked in, but no one in line, so he stepped forward side-stepping the blonde barista at the register and looking at Ren directly.

“Your usual, or shall I surprise you?” Ren raised an eyebrow, the corner of his mouth tipping up in the smirk.

It had become a daily ritual between them, sometimes Hux let him surprise him, but mostly, he went with his cappuccino.

This morning, he wanted to save any surprises for the bedroom that night. “My usual,” he responded crisply and pulled out a $10 bill to pay for the drink.

“Pity,” Ren smirked maddeningly.

Maybe it was more maddening now that Hux knew the feeling of nipping those full lips between his own. They were soft, but could be demanding, that spark of Ren could start a fire in Hux more quickly than anything he’d ever known. Not now. This was not the time, nor the place. He pushed away the memory of Ren’s lips against his own.

“I’m not feeling adventurous today,” he shrugged, bored, and let the other employee cash out his order. He dropped an extra dollar in the tip jar.

“You should always feel adventurous,” Ren returned as he heated the milk. “You might miss something important.”

“You can surprise me later.”

“Maybe I want to surprise you now?”

“ _Maybe_ you’ll have to learn patience,” Hux tapped his fingers gently on the top of the counter. “Good things come to those who wait.”

“I’m a dessert first sort of guy.”

“That doesn’t surprise me.”

“It’s a good thing you like dessert.”

Hux could feel warmth in his neck and face and he cursed his pale skin. There was nothing about this back and forth that should have inspired _this_. They had been prone to far more suggestive conversations, in public, in this very Starbucks even, so really he needed to, in Ren’s vernacular, chill.

The cup was offered across the counter along with an intense gaze. Ren’s fingers were warm across his as the cup swapped hands and Hux sought to take care of the flush by offering Ren a smile.

“We’ll have dessert tonight,” he suggested.

“I’m counting on it,” Ren turned away to start the next drink.

The coffee was warm, something Hux didn’t entirely mind as he stepped out into the street with his hand wrapped around it. Half a conversation echoed in his head, a conversation that had echoed in his head for a long time after he’d had it, taunted him with his own inability to let a line of thought go even when it was wrong, but Ren had been immeasurably right: Hux’s life was ever so much better because Ren made him coffee.

His assistant greeted him at the office with three folders and the fact that he’d received four phone calls already. Hux sighed and started towards his office. It was thirty minutes later and he was half done with the cappuccino when he realized that the black marker used to write his name in Ren’s handwriting, had also been used at the bottom of the cup. Bewildered, Hux turned the cup around, his lips forming into a smirk as he realized what Ren had done. Crossed out was the entire standard 'hot beverage warning’ except for three words: 'you’re extremely hot’.

His cheeks were warm again, but he couldn’t stop smiling as he reached for his phone and opened his texts to text Ren’s number:

– I said you could surprise me tonight. But now you’ve been impatient and naughty.

The return response was so quick Hux knew Ren had to have been waiting for it.

– Are you going to punish me?

Hux chuckled as his fingers flew across the phone’s screen.

– I’m going to surprise you.

He turned off the ringer and slid the phone into his top desk drawer anticipating that there would be a response and then another one, and that his ignoring of them would drive Ren as mad as ignoring Ren’s was going to make him crazy. But if it was game on, then it was game on, and they would both be more than ready for tonight.


End file.
